Latest update November 23rd, 2024 1:00 AM
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Budget cuts threaten future Govt./Opposition ‘negotiations’
…Linden package, Pension increase to go ahead as planned
By Gary Eleazar
The recent budgetary cuts by the combined opposition will not in any way have a negative effect on the Old Age Pension increase recently committed to by Head of State Donald Ramotar, but will threaten future ‘negotiations’ between the government and Opposition.
This is according to a senior government official, who said that despite the ‘opposition bullyism, using its one seat majority in parliament,” the Old Age Pension increase to $10,000 will not be adversely affected and will be effected from tomorrow as announced.
Head of State Donald Ramotar
The party source said that the People Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) along with the administration headed by President Donald Ramotar “will not renege on its position.”
Speaking to the package which was announced for Lindeners, aimed at fostering growth in the economic sector by making access to entrepreneurial financing more easily accessible, the official said that none of the publicly announced undertakings by the President will be reneged on.
Asked what the budget cuts could mean for any future negotiations, the party source said that unlike the APNU/AFC Opposition, the PPP/C does not have a public and a private position.
The official drew reference to the President’s recent State of the Nation Address where he had said that the government is willing to continue dialogue.
“Negotiate”, the party source said, is another issue altogether but stressed equally that the government is open to “dialogue” with all stakeholders in the interest of the nation.
President Ramotar in his presentation, had fired back at the Opposition, calling their moves callous and heartless, although he left the door open for ‘dialogue.’
Speaking to the extra-parliamentary talks that had been taking place at Office of the President, which for five of the seven days the Committee of Supply staved off any cuts, Ramotar said “In the course of these engagements, we had reached agreements with APNU, which they subsequently reneged on.”
He opined that this reneging on the part of APNU was out of fear “that the AFC would steal political support from them, and bowing to pressures from extremists in and outside of their ranks.”
Ramotar reminded that the Government demonstrated goodwill from the beginning in increasing the Old Age pension to $10,000 per month. “That alone would cost the treasury more than one billion dollars.”
He said too that the Government had also agreed on a package of measures to assist the citizens of Linden “where we agreed to implement a phased reduction in subsidies, which would see the citizens of that mining community paying only a half of the tariff, which the rest of the country is paying…The adjustment in the subsidy became necessary because it is unsustainable.”
Opposition Leader David Granger
Ramotar did point out “that my faith in dialogue remains undiminished…I still hold to the view that dialogue with all Guyanese, including the political parties, is the best way for us to narrow our differences and reach consensus on the way forward.”
He did warn however that dialogue cannot be constructive or productive when the political opposition “is intransigent or adopt an all-or-nothing posture.”
Opposition Leader David Granger responded by saying that the cuts were meant to send a message and that it is now time to return to the negotiating table.
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